3 ms·

This should ostensibly be a good thing. I pay $300-500 upfront, and then my bill goes down from $90/mth to something more reasonable like $60/70. In practice,

This should ostensibly be a good thing. I pay $300-500 upfront, and then my bill goes down from $90/mth to something more reasonable like $60/70. In practice, however, what I imagine will happen will be that they'll tack on all sorts of fine-print fees and other obnoxious gotchas such that the end bill will probably be about the same...plus the fact that I just paid $500 for the damn phone. Look to the airline industries. Did they stop their absurd baggage checking fees when the price of gas went down?

jessriedel 11y ago
> Look to the airline industries. Did they stop their absurd baggage checking fees when the price of gas went down? Well, baggage isn't costless to the airlines. In theory thing should be more efficient if the consumer saw approximately the correct price. I just wish Kayak would start showing prices assuming 1 checked back by default, and give you the option to specify how many you expect to bring. That would remove a lot of the incentive for those gotcha charges.
- pavel_lishin 11y ago
  How often do people travel with checked bags? Even for a two-week trip, I typically bring an overhead carry-on and a backpack.
  - seanp2k2 11y ago
    Lots of infrequent traveler friends of mine will bring a full-size suitcase for trips of a few days - a week. I personally love running off the plane and into wherever I've landed to explore, but not everyone travels so light.
  - jessriedel 11y ago
    Judging by the line at the carousel, I'd wager there's at least a bag for each person on the plane on average.
mattwad 11y ago
All you have to do is bring your bag to the gate and they always check it for free. It wastes more time for everyone but they still get to charge the poor honest people at the ticket counter
- seanp2k2 11y ago
  This works if you have an additional carry-on-sized bag. I probably wouldn't try it with a huge suitcase, surfboard, or anything else "special" or oversized.
omouse 11y ago
It should actually go further down than that.

jessriedel 11y ago

> Look to the airline industries. Did they stop their absurd baggage checking fees when the price of gas went down? Well, baggage isn't costless to the airlines. In theory thing should be more efficient if the consumer saw approximately the correct price. I just wish Kayak would start showing prices assuming 1 checked back by default, and give you the option to specify how many you expect to bring. That would remove a lot of the incentive for those gotcha charges.

pavel_lishin 11y ago
How often do people travel with checked bags? Even for a two-week trip, I typically bring an overhead carry-on and a backpack.
- seanp2k2 11y ago
  Lots of infrequent traveler friends of mine will bring a full-size suitcase for trips of a few days - a week. I personally love running off the plane and into wherever I've landed to explore, but not everyone travels so light.
- jessriedel 11y ago
  Judging by the line at the carousel, I'd wager there's at least a bag for each person on the plane on average.

mattwad 11y ago

All you have to do is bring your bag to the gate and they always check it for free. It wastes more time for everyone but they still get to charge the poor honest people at the ticket counter

seanp2k2 11y ago
This works if you have an additional carry-on-sized bag. I probably wouldn't try it with a huge suitcase, surfboard, or anything else "special" or oversized.

omouse 11y ago

It should actually go further down than that.